Prehistoric accounting and the problem of representation: On recent archeological evidence of the Middle-East from 8000 B.C. to 3000 B.C.

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The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 14, No. 2 Fall 1987
Richard Mattessich UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
PREHISTORIC ACCOUNTING AND THE PROBLEM OF REPRESENTATION:
ON RECENT ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE OF THE MIDDLE-EAST FROM 8000 B.C. TO 3000 B.C.
Abstract: Recent archeological research offers revolutionary in-sight about the precursor of abstract counting and pictographic as well as ideographic writing. This precursor was a data processing system in which simple (and later complex) clay tokens of various shapes were aggregated in hollow clay receptacles or envelopes (and later sealed string systems) to represent symbolically assets and economic transactions. Scores of such tokens (the recent explana-tion of which is due to Prof. Schmandt-Besserat) were found by archeologists all over the Fertile Crescent in layers belonging to the time between 8000 B.C. to 3100 B.C. — after this date cuneiform clay tablets emerged.
The economic-philosophic implications of this discovery are important. First, it suggests that accounting preceded abstract counting as well as writing. Second, it suggests that conceptual representation emerged gradually. Third, it confirms the previous hypotheses that counting emerged in several stages. Fourth, it reveals the existence of an abstract input-output principle some 10,000 years ago and a kind of double entry over 5,000 years ago. Finally, it offers the earliest illustration of the (occasional) validity of the correspondence theory.
To assist readers I have inserted at the beginning of the fifth section some explanatory paragraphs on Wittgenstein's work.
Introduction
The quest for the origin of symbolic representation is not unrelated to Wittgenstein's perennial question: How is lan-
This paper was initially presented as "Wittgenstein and Archeological Evidence of Representation and Data Processing from 8000 B.C. to 3000 B.C." at the 12th International Wittgenstein Symposium (Kirchberg/Wechsel, Au-stria) in August 1987. It is reproduced with permission of the General Editor of the Wittgenstein Publication Series, Elisabeth Leinfellner, and the publishing house, Hölder-Pichler-Tempskey, Vienna. Financial support by the Social Sci-ences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for this project, and the valuable correspondence with Professor Schmandt-Besserat are acknowledged.